The first Zeppelin and the first Parseval air-ships were acquired in 1907 and, in spite of frequent accidents, have become as much a part of the armed forces as have batteries or battle-ships. There are now no less than five air-ship battalions under the “general board of inspection of military, air and power transport matters.” The combined appropriations of Prussia, Bavaria and Württemberg for their air fleets in 1913 amounted to 70,000,000 marks. The recent ships, which are not necessarily confined to the Zeppelin type, though built along the same lines, are almost as large as ocean steamships. Last year the “L II” carried twenty-eight passengers on its trial trip. It exploded in mid-air and twenty-seven were killed, among them almost all of Germany’s chief military aeronautic experts. “L III,” which is nearly completed, will have a displacement of 32,000 cubic meters. The largest and newest ship at present, the Schütte-Lanz II, has a displacement of between 23,000 and 24,000 cubic meters, is run by four Maybach motors, each of one hundred seventy horse-power, and beats the previous Zeppelin record for speed (seventy-nine kilometers or forty-nine and three-eighths miles an hour) by six kilometers. No other country has any air-ship that can in any way compare with this. Under construction is the twenty-fifth Zeppelin, which will have a length of some four hundred fifty feet. All modern air-ships are equipped with wireless telegraphy having a range of about four hundred kilometers, and can carry light Gatling guns. They can lift a weight of some 16,000 pounds and their cost is from 700,000 marks upward. The Germans have practised very industriously with their air-ships—only the other day a pilot completed his seven hundredth trip.
Military Airship in Process of Construction
Whether in war the Zeppelins will come up to the expectations that have been formed of them remains of course to be seen. One can conceive of a single ship, under favorable conditions, throwing down enough explosives on an army to put it completely to rout. But the Zeppelin is a very big target and its motors make enough noise to warn a whole city of its approach. Russia and Germany herself now have many vertical guns for shooting air-ships. On the other hand, a Zeppelin can fly very high and can take refuge behind a cloud. Its chief objects of attack will doubtless be arsenals, dockyards, bridges and tunnel-mouths, though no fleet near the shore and no camp can feel quite safe from it in future. It would be so tempting to drop a shell in the midst of an enemy’s general staff and thus bring confusion into the whole guidance of the army!
Gondola of the Schütte-Lanz I Airship
The Zeppelin has dangerous enemies in the ordinary aeroplanes. A Frenchman has just vowed to run the nose of his “plane” into the first air-ship that appears over Paris. It is possible for the airman to shoot, too, at close range, or to fly above the monster and let down ropes with hooks that shall tear its sides. The new ships, however, as I have said, can carry Gatling guns, and it is only a question of how they can best trail them on the enemy. The latest idea is a shaft that shall extend right through the body of the Zeppelin and come out on the upper surface. This arrangement has been tried on the newest Schütte-Lanz.
Airship Parseval [1]
To the value of aeroplanes as instruments of war Germany awakened late. Not until after an exhibition of the American, Orville Wright, on the Templehof field near Berlin in 1910 was the matter taken very seriously. Now there are four flying battalions in the army with nearly fifteen hundred men, and it is believed that the machines are more solid and stable than those of the French. All records were broken by German machines during the past year, and the great Prince Henry races in May, though fatal accidents occurred, demonstrated very well about what may be expected from a troop of airmen in time of war. The conditions were extremely severe and the weather was not favorable, yet twelve out of twenty-nine starters achieved the final goal within the time limit.